Portrait of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel

Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1585–1646), was one of the greatest connoisseurs and collectors of the seventeenth century. As a young man, he traveled to Flanders, where he first met Peter Paul Rubens, and to Italy, where he amassed a remarkable collection both of modern paintings and drawings, and of ancient sculpture. Arundel enjoyed a distinguished career as a diplomat and statesman in the service of Charles I until he suffered a humiliating defeat as general in 1638. He retired to the Netherlands shortly thereafter, and died in Italy in 1646.

Rubens’ magisterial yet warmly observed likeness of the earl conveys the mutual respect that developed between the accomplished and erudite painter and his powerful patron. Rubens had already painted the earl’s wife, Alathea Talbot, in 1620. Nine years later, when the artist came to London on a diplomatic mission, he renewed his friendship with Arundel. He was particularly eager to study the ancient sculpture and inscriptions in Arundel’s collection, and wrote enthusiastically of them, “I confess that I have never seen anything in the world more rare, from the point of view of antiquity.”

Much as he admired (and to some extent sought to emulate) the earl’s impressive accomplishments as a collector and humanist, Rubens chose to represent Arundel as a warrior, in armor, wearing the Order of the Garter, and holding the gold baton symbolic of his role as Earl Marshal of England. In this hereditary post, Arundel presided over the country’s nobility and upheld its traditions of chivalric honor. Rubens’s imposing likeness conveys not only the pomp and ceremony associated with this office, but also the earl’s innate reserve and haughty demeanor.

Rubens probably left this portrait unfinished when he returned to Antwerp in March 1630. Much of the figure below the waist, the background, and the area to the left were only summarily sketched in by the master, and subsequently completed by another hand. Nonetheless, Rubens’ brilliant brushwork and the vivid characterization of his distinguished subject fully justify Isabella Stewart Gardner’s passionate pursuit of the painting for her collection.